PBP Commentary

Coming up we have a super heavyweight MMA rules bout between Roman Ship (ranked 497 p4p, 951 weight class) and Tali Ihantala (ranked 17 p4p, 32 weight class). Over to our ring announcer for the fighter introductions!

Ship
vs
Ihantala

195 cm
25
283
10 - 9 - 0

203 cm
29
253
9 - 8 - 0

Good wrestling
World class MT
Cardio machine

Good wrestler
World class MT
Granite chin

Ladies and gentlemen. This fight is 3 rounds, in the super heavyweight division.
Introducing the fighter to my left, fighting out of the red corner.
With a record of 10 - 9 - 0, fighting out of London, Roman Ship!
And introducing the fighter to my right, fighting out of the blue corner.
With a record of 9 - 8 - 0, fighting out of St Petersburg, Tali Ihantala!
The judges for this bout are Radbod Blank, Albert Achterberg and Wagner Zegers.

The bell rings for round one and we are underway!
Ship misses with a hook. Ihantala ducked under it nicely.
Ihantala looked like he wanted to counter with a punch but didn't throw it.
Ihantala misses with a half-hearted attempt at a head kick.
Ship has been working on his boxing with his coaches at Deathsquad in the buildup to the fight.
Ship lands a glancing blow to the side of Ihantala's head.
Ship rushes in with a sloppy looking punch
and Ihantala counters with a lovely straight right hand!

It looks like Roman Ship has been cut.
Ihantala misses with a half-hearted attempt at a head kick.
Ship tries to clinch but Ihantala moves out of range.
Ihantala throws a combination but it was largely blocked by Ship.
Ship on the wrong end of a nice hook.
Ship takes one to the side of the head.
Ship lands with a nice body punch.
Ship has his head slapped from side to side by a 3 punch combination. That must have hurt him.
The crowd are loving this. Great action here.
Ship throws a hard body shot but it just misses.
Ship tries to clinch up but Ihantala circles away and keeps his distance.
Ihantala avoids the head kick by Ship.

Ship closes the distance and clinches.
Ihantala lands with a short shot to the head.

That's one minute gone in the round.
Ihantala goes for a body shot but it's blocked.
Ship tries a body shot but Ihantala blocks it.
Ship tries to pull guard but can't drag his opponent to the mat. Ihantala just stands there and leans against the cage.
Ship is trying to pull guard but Ihantala has him pressed against the cage.
An uppercut to the body lands inside from Ihantala.
Ship doesn't land with the attempted body shot.
Ihantala tried to land a shot to the body but connects with Ship's elbow.
Ihantala presses Ship against the cage and delivers a mid-strength body shot.
Ihantala scores with a hook to the body.
Ship is breathing heavily.
Ihantala works for underhooks and lands a body shot in the process.
Ship fails to pull the fight into his guard.
That's three failed takedown attempts in the round for Roman Ship. That's going to take a lot out of him.
Ihantala lands a left hand that snaps the head of Ship backwards.
Ihantala lands a hook to the body. It's hard to tell if that hurt Ship or not.
Ihantala gets through Ship's defenses to land a nice punch to the side of the head.

Roman Ship's cut is getting worse.
Ihantala working some nice short punches in the clinch.
A short right hand to the side of the head by Ihantala.
A short right hand to the side of the head by Ihantala.
Ihantala softening up his opponent with strikes, against the cage.

Ship is rocked!
This is a great period of action - very entertaining stuff!
Ihantala pushes Ship against the cage. Ihantala is working some dirty boxing. Ihantala pushes off with a quick right hook! Ship goes down! Ship tries to stand but stumbles back to his kness! Ihantala moves in to finish and the ref steps in to prevent any more damage!

Ladies and gentlemen, after 1:59 of round 1, we have a winner by way of TKO (Strikes). Tali Ihantala!
Tali Ihantala was full of energy after the big win and talked about how he thinks he can do big things in this sport. The crowd were appreciative of his determination to succeed.